This specification relates to wireless adaptation of lighting power supplies.
Lighting control within buildings is traditionally limited to control of lights in the ceiling that illuminate a general area. This type of control is typically referred to as ambient lighting control. Typically, the power supplies of the lighting devices are controlled by wired control systems and/or by wireless control systems.
Example wired control systems are a combination of wired connections connecting a lighting power supply to a dimmer and power control device and a control signal source that either manually or automatically generates the control signals to adjust the power supply of the lighting device. Such wired control systems include on/off relays and/or phase cut circuits interposed between mains power conductors and a lamp power supply to provide on/off and dimming control, and relays in conjunction with signal control circuits, such as a 0V-10V signal generator that generates an analog signal indicative of a dimming level. While on/off signaling itself is simply a case of whether the power to the ballast is provided or not, support for phase-cutting and 0-10V signaling must be specifically designed into the ballast. This adds cost to the ballast and cost to the control equipment delivering the signals to the ballast.
An example wireless control system is a control device that receives a control signal wirelessly and, through a short wired connection, controls the power supply. Wireless control systems often leverage existing wired control systems and interfaces to enable wireless controls. For example, a wireless switch could provide manual controls for turning the lighting on/off and to dim the lighting by use of a triac for a phase-cut dimming ballast. Likewise, a wireless adapter can include a relay and a 0-10V signal generation circuit and receive wireless signals from a wireless controller to control a dimming ballast driven, in part, by the 0-10V signal.
While the wireless control systems do wirelessly enable a power supply to provide for wireless control, the device that provides the wireless control itself needs to include a mains power (e.g., 120 V, 60 Hz) conditioning and converter circuit to generate regulated DC power, and additional power regulator circuits to generate analog control signals (e.g., a 12 V regulator circuit to generate the 0-10 V dimming signal). Additionally, in some situations, the device that provides the wireless control is deployed in-line with the mains power. Accordingly, the device requires a relay to interrupt power to the controlled power supply. These components add additional expenses to the cost of the devices.